Launching in March 2010, Get Connected is the new Youth Service gathering for young people. It is an opportunity for confirmation candidates, World Youth Day pilgrims, young Lourdes pilgrims, youth groups, youth workers and young people generally to come together with their local priests for Mass and a social ...
In September 2010 our first YOUTH MISSION TEAM will be formed. Youth Chaplain, Fr Paul Farrer, is looking for up to six young adults to join him in forming a community. Living together at St Thomas More’s, Middlesbrough, the team will spend a year working with the young people of ...
On Tuesday 1st December, Year 6 pupils from primary schools in Hull and Market Weighton joined Year 7 pupils at St Mary’s College for the ‘Big Sing Advent Thing’.
After being welcomed by St Mary’s headteacher Mr Fitzpatrick, the children enjoyed a full morning of singing practise led by Music teachers ...
Rocking In The Aisles is back in 2010!
Priests, Deacons and Young people will have you laughing, dancing and clapping on 15-16 January at Middlesbrough Theatre.The Knights of St Columba underwrite and produce this ever popular show, now in its 12th year. Thousands of pounds have been raised for charity over ...
Will you be 16+ by mid August 2011? Yes? Then you can join the World Youth Day pilgrimage. Click here to download the Middlesbrough World Youth Day 2011 Application Form.
Bishop Terry joined around 150 young people from all over the Diocese for Mass to mark the Feast of Christ the Universal King. This feast is always designated as National Youth Sunday and was chosen by the Diocese of Middlesbrough and Leeds as the day to launch preparations for the ...
The idea of World Youth Day had never been something that grabbed me. So the thought of travelling all the way to Australia and being present at the celebrations of World Youth Day in Sydney didn't initially fill me with joy.
However, I can now tell you I am a convert! ...
Bishop Terry's Prayer for You!
I want for you - our young people - what I want for myself and for everyone else.
That we be free – to know the truth, so that we can choose what is good and what will bring us lasting joy.
However, being free is getting harder. ...
David writes,
I was born in Hull and attended Bellfield and St Richard's primary schools before moving up to St Mary's College, where I remained for sixth form. While at school, I developed a passion for drama and music and had roles in each school production, and also played the tuba ...
For the first time in a number of years, the Diocesan National Youth Sunday celebrations took place at a central point and brought young people from all over the Diocese together. The unseasonal snow fall of the night before meant that the journey to All Saints was an interesting one for all of the groups. We did, for the main part, arrive in one piece though!
The theme of this year’s National Youth Sunday was Reclaim The Future. It was a day about relationships; relationships with God, with the earth and with one another. We were invited, by the resources that the Bishops of England and Wales had provided to reflect on the fact that “I am because we are”. This was a reflection that somehow was even more relevant in our Diocese as we gathered from all corners to come together.
A fun and fast paced afternoon gave the seventy young people and youth leaders who gathered in All Saints School the opportunity to explore what right choice means in their own lives. Young people joined Planet Pulse a live game show with CAFOD finding out how green their lifestyles were and the impact they have on the planet. As the game show cards shot up in response to statements about lifestyle and action, the bigger picture of the small steps of many, was visibly striking.
In CAFOD’s live Sustainably Studios young people saw an advert created by a young Costa Rican campaigner and listened to a message from Elisa Manuel de Magaia in Mozambique explaining how climate change is affecting her community and why she believes passionately that we all need to focus on the environment and take this message out. Delving into the live sustainably prop box young people rose to the challenge producing their own amazingly creative adverts for their peers in schools, parishes and youth groups which were filmed and will be shown at the World Social Forum in Brazil in January 2009.
The closing liturgy for the event brought the group together as one. It reminded us why we had made the effort to gather together today. We heard the gospel of the day and Father Simon Broughton told us that we had been called to think about three words: choice, change and challenge. The young people shared bidding prayers that they had written with help from Jane Cook. Then an extraordinary thing happened. Fr Simon prepared the group for Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament by explaining what was going to happen and then he left the room to return with Our Lord. The silence that filled the room was inspiring. We sat in silence and darkness, the room was lit only by candles offering our prayer intentions, for ten minutes. This was a new experience for some of the young people who told me afterwards that it was “so cool” and yet something totally different to anything they had experienced before.
Perhaps some of the young people who gathered for the celebrations can better sum up the day than me. Clara, 11, from Hull said that she though the best part of the day had been writing bidding prayers as it gave her the chance to open herself up to God. Alice, 12, from Hull said that the best bit of her day had been making new friends and talking to people who she sees around school but doesn’t necessarily talk to. Christina and Katie, both 11, from Hull said that their best bits were everything but they did particularly enjoy the disco at the end of the day.
Pupils from St Mary’s College in Middlesbrough came along to help in the running of the day. Stephen Terry and Anne McGowran were “wandering reporters”. When I asked them what they had thought about the celebrations they said that they personally had been inspired by the willingness of the young people to get involved in the activities. They felt that the day had been varied enough to hold the attention of the young people. Overall, they suggested that events like NYS were good to have in the Diocese and should happen more often.
That is my intent. I am working currently with different groups of people to make different things happen around the Diocese to ensure that all young people who want to can come and experience God in a way that may be different from the usual ways they do this.
My thanks go to the CAFOD team and Jane Cook who ran the workshops, Fr Simon for leading us in the liturgy, DJ Ryan, the students who helped us to run the day and the young people and group leaders themselves who came along and made the celebration real.
National Youth Sunday
For the first time in a number of years, the Diocesan National Youth Sunday celebrations took place at a central point and brought young people from all over the Diocese together. The unseasonal snow fall of the night before meant that the journey to All Saints was an interesting one for all of the groups. We did, for the main part, arrive in one piece though!
The theme of this year’s National Youth Sunday was Reclaim The Future. It was a day about relationships; relationships with God, with the earth and with one another. We were invited, by the resources that the Bishops of England and Wales had provided to reflect on the fact that “I am because we are”. This was a reflection that somehow was even more relevant in our Diocese as we gathered from all corners to come together.
A fun and fast paced afternoon gave the seventy young people and youth leaders who gathered in All Saints School the opportunity to explore what right choice means in their own lives. Young people joined Planet Pulse a live game show with CAFOD finding out how green their lifestyles were and the impact they have on the planet. As the game show cards shot up in response to statements about lifestyle and action, the bigger picture of the small steps of many, was visibly striking.
In CAFOD’s live Sustainably Studios young people saw an advert created by a young Costa Rican campaigner and listened to a message from Elisa Manuel de Magaia in Mozambique explaining how climate change is affecting her community and why she believes passionately that we all need to focus on the environment and take this message out. Delving into the live sustainably prop box young people rose to the challenge producing their own amazingly creative adverts for their peers in schools, parishes and youth groups which were filmed and will be shown at the World Social Forum in Brazil in January 2009.
The closing liturgy for the event brought the group together as one. It reminded us why we had made the effort to gather together today. We heard the gospel of the day and Father Simon Broughton told us that we had been called to think about three words: choice, change and challenge. The young people shared bidding prayers that they had written with help from Jane Cook. Then an extraordinary thing happened. Fr Simon prepared the group for Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament by explaining what was going to happen and then he left the room to return with Our Lord. The silence that filled the room was inspiring. We sat in silence and darkness, the room was lit only by candles offering our prayer intentions, for ten minutes. This was a new experience for some of the young people who told me afterwards that it was “so cool” and yet something totally different to anything they had experienced before.
Perhaps some of the young people who gathered for the celebrations can better sum up the day than me. Clara, 11, from Hull said that she though the best part of the day had been writing bidding prayers as it gave her the chance to open herself up to God. Alice, 12, from Hull said that the best bit of her day had been making new friends and talking to people who she sees around school but doesn’t necessarily talk to. Christina and Katie, both 11, from Hull said that their best bits were everything but they did particularly enjoy the disco at the end of the day.
Pupils from St Mary’s College in Middlesbrough came along to help in the running of the day. Stephen Terry and Anne McGowran were “wandering reporters”. When I asked them what they had thought about the celebrations they said that they personally had been inspired by the willingness of the young people to get involved in the activities. They felt that the day had been varied enough to hold the attention of the young people. Overall, they suggested that events like NYS were good to have in the Diocese and should happen more often.
That is my intent. I am working currently with different groups of people to make different things happen around the Diocese to ensure that all young people who want to can come and experience God in a way that may be different from the usual ways they do this.
My thanks go to the CAFOD team and Jane Cook who ran the workshops, Fr Simon for leading us in the liturgy, DJ Ryan, the students who helped us to run the day and the young people and group leaders themselves who came along and made the celebration real.